Palin snubbed by GOP convention?

posted at 10:01 am on July 16, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

So says Newsweek, and apparently Sarah Palin. Six weeks out from the Republican convention in Tampa, Palin has yet to get an invite to the big show. According to Newsweek’s Peter J. Boyer, Tea Party activists are furious over the snub … although there seems to scant evidence of that in the article itself:

Palin would certainly light up the base at the convention—her 2008 vice-presidential acceptance speech was, in terms of partisan enthusiasm, the high-water mark of the McCain campaign—but a jolt of Palin at Romney’s convention seems most unlikely. The Romney campaign prides itself on a slavish adherence to script, and Palin cannot be trusted to avoid the impulse to go rogue. That is why, perhaps, the Romney campaign has not asked Palin to speak at the convention nor contacted her about even attending the party’s marquee event in Tampa. Queries to the Romney camp about any possible Palin role at the convention meet with a stony silence. Palin does not seem surprised. “What can I say?” she responded in an email from Alaska, when asked by Newsweek about the convention, just before heading to Michigan to deliver an Obama-thumping speech. “I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on the road to bankruptcy, and engaging in crony capitalism.”

“In accepting those consequences,” she added, “one must remember this isn’t Sadie Hawkins and you don’t invite yourself and a date to the Big Dance.” …

“Romney’s just not a fighter,” says Jenny Beth Martin, head of the Tea Party Patriots, the largest of the activist groups. “That’s why it would be good for him to have someone like Palin speaking at the convention. He needs to do something to rile up his base, to make them enthusiastic. And I don’t mean just the Tea Party. I mean die-hard Republicans. I live in the second-most-Republican county in the state of Georgia, and the folks around here are not enthusiastic about him.”

The lead-in splash at the top of the web page says, “The Tea Party is livid” over a lack of an invitation (see update), but has anyone heard this? We’re at least in contact with a number of Tea Party organizations, and to my knowledge none of us has heard that Palin won’t get an invitation to speak, nor of anger over a lack of an invitation to this point. In fact, I’m not sure we know of anyone who has been inked into a specific speaking slot, including some of the actual presidential contenders from this cycle.

The quote from Martin is the only one Boyer provides from any grassroots leaders, by name or anonymously, and it doesn’t seem very “livid” to me. Most of Boyers’ assessment of Tea Party activists come from a rehash of commentary and reaction to Romney during the nomination fight. The Romney camp apparently declined to respond to Boyers (with one exception, to which I’ll return momentarily), and they declined to respond to me when I asked them about this article today, preferring to focus on their new strategy to attack Obama over his crony capitalism.

After reading the article, there doesn’t appear to be much in which to respond, frankly, except one point. The article seems to be pretty heavy on sourcing from Palin’s camp, and very little from Tea Party activists. In fact, it seems very heavily sourced from Palin herself. The one comment made by “one adviser associated with the campaign” was that they thought Palin’s contract with Fox would preclude her from speaking at the convention, which Palin refutes herself on the record (and Fox concurs). It looks like a shot across the bow, leveraged through Boyers with some very weak Tea-Party-is-angry dressing, aimed at Team Romney to give Palin a platform in August. We’ll see if the message is received, and what the response will be.

Update: The “livid” part came from the “dek” that gets added by editors, not by the reporter. If you put that expectation aside, the article is actually pretty straightforward. Also, be sure to read what Herman Cain has to say about Tea Party temperament, which is — to no one’s great surprise — skeptical but open to convincing.

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You don’t like Palin. I think we get that.
As for SP not gushing over Romney, she has said she will vote for the Republican. That’s the extent of what Willard can expect from this Conservative as well. He should be more appreciative of that.

His supporters here belong on a Democrat Site. Well for that matter so does “that Republican Registration is just a technicality” Mitt.

As I have been saying. Mitt can only win if the Democrats abandon Obama and vote for him. Many Republicans will not vote for Mitt.

Mitt is all for Congress. Congress with that huge 9% support of Americans. Mitt favorite of 9% of Americans.

What a disaster this year is. But do not despair Congress will have more Conservatives in it and with Obama even more in 2014 and 2016 perhaps a chance to fix the country. 2012 was a poor chance anyway we would never have 60 Senators anyway. Perhaps we can get enough in 2014 to Impeach Obama/Biden.

Steveangell on July 16, 2012 at 10:29 AM

Yes, you go ahead and count on electing all those conservatives to Congress, the same body you just dismissed as some unpopular favorite of Romney’s (which made no sense), so they might impeach Obama in 2014. That’s much better than actually kicking Obama out of office this year. /

so is she a team player or is she a rogue calling out RINO’s and saying “the things that need to be said”?? you ‘nistas need to pick a narrative.

chasdal on July 16, 2012 at 10:18 AM

Hmmm, good question. Now here’s a question for you.

maybe, just maybe, Mitt Romney being our Party’s nominee,
could reach out to her and say, “come on, we need you on board
to help.” She has stated for a long while now that she is supporting the ticket…

If the Republican Party goes down the road of having our
nominee shitt*in on all people in the Party who don’t see
eye to eye with them, the Party is done. As the nominee HE
(and his team) are the ones who make the calls to all the
political figures nationwide telling them what he plans
to do and ENERGIZING THEM!!

In the future educate yourself on how a Political campaign
is run. This woman doesn’t owe Mitt Romney a damn thing.
And neither do we as citizens. The responsibilty is up
to him to inspire us to want to vote for him, support him,
man phones for him, run campaign offices for him, and in
Palin’s position, campaign for him.

you romney supporters are transfixed by his outer beauty. the rest of see a big government elitist who will work hand in hand with the democrats to destroy this country. we see the corrupt associates he surrounds himself with.

Sarah still stands for the common man. mitts been bought and paid for.

well maybe Palin would’ve been invited if she wasn’t planning a ‘gathering’ a few blocks away that will draw attention away from the convention an on to her.
While I think Palin should’ve been allowed to speak @ the convention, She seems to have forgotten that MITT is going to be the nominee-not her. The focus needs to be on HIM-NOT her.

annoyinglittletwerp on July 16, 2012 at 10:13 AM

Uh, ALT, do some research.

Palin rented space. You don’t know that Palin was planning a rally or anything else. You just pulled that out of your butt. The Channelside Mall falls within the security zone of the Convention area.

Jesus. This was just a dumb post. Go back to worshiping at the Graven Image of His Mittness.

We’ve known for months in Palinland that Hit Mittness and the guys at the Omega Fraternity were going to try and find a way to freeze out Palin because she’s better at what she does best, public speaking, than he will ever be.

Face it, Mittbots. Romney’s Campaign is run by the same people who ran the Bush Administration and the GOP right into the ground. And recently, Palin has been warning Romney that if he doesn’t man up and fight, the same thing will happen to him.

And a lot of you Establishmentards can’t take it.

Romney should be up five points on this Clown President right now. The fact that he isn’t speaks more about Romney than it does about Obama.

And the fact that Romney isn’t doing what he can to reach out to people like Palin (which he is not, and I happen to know this for a fact) as Reagan had done by this time in the 1980 cycle, tells me just how much long term trouble this campaign could be in.

To beat Obama, we’ll need a unified Party. Palin has been ready to play ball for months, but she won’t kiss Romney’s a$$. Nor should she.

you mittwits, don’t get it do you? etch A. sketch is nobody’s first, second or even third choice. He needs the base to win, meaning he needs Sarah.

But hey if you think this is all about ego, you damn right it is. Massage Sarah’s ego, apologize for all the anonymous insults, cos there have been plenty. ‘Cos I’ll tell you this, he doesn’t get Sarah out there on the trail, he doesn’t win. Simple as that!

Personally, I think it is a stupid move on Romney’s part to
not include Palin. She energizes the base. She would be
instrumental in getting out the vote from people who really don’t
like Romney, who think Romney is a liberal, not too unlike Obama
whom they despise. And there are many.

Palin might have responded to Newsweek differently,
perhaps with only a “Not yet!” comment.

I realize there is bad blood between the two; and Romney, in the
position of power (as candidate) should have extended the olive
branch. This goes to show how petty and arrogant Mitt and his
campaign staff can be; again, not too far from how Obama and
his band of merry thugs behave.

I was going to state that Mitt’s campaign doesn’t need this
distraction, however, have changed my mind. Obama needs all
these distractions because he doesn’t have a record to run on.
If one looks at Romney, one can say the same thing. Ran Bain,
saved Olympics, was a liberal governor in a liberal state.
Not anything the conservatives can see to excite them. Perhaps
Romney needs this distraction after all.

Sarah Palin…former GOP vice presidential candidate…garnered more votes for McCain than McCain could have gotten without her…earned more funding for GOP candidates than any other GOP elected or former elected official on record..a year ago when the vile MSM was eviscerating Palin almost every GOP standard bearer ignored it all or made some sort of mushmouth comment about “she started it.”

Further proof that the GOP is nothing more than Democrat Lite…and lacking cajones.

Indies are moving more and more toward the Gary Johnson camp.

A lot of one-time GOPers, too.

This election is the GOP’s to lose…and lose big…simply because they are so into themselves that they’ve forgotten the electorate, once again.

Sarah Palin would electrify the house and I hope these knuckleheads reconsider and invite her to address the convention. But, reality check, they really don’t want anyone that overshadows or excites more than Romney…and that limits the choices among the living at least. Hence the problem with picking a VP running mate also – can’t be someone who would be more exciting and appealing than the presidential candidate… Oh boy, this convention sounds like it’s going to be a snoozer!

To beat Obama, we’ll need a unified Party. Palin has been ready to play ball for months, but she won’t kiss Romney’s a$$. Nor should she.

victor82 on July 16, 2012 at 10:39 AM

She’s not been ready to play ball for months, and it is the bitter Palin fans who seem to be the ones averse to unifying the party around anyone other than her. And she taps right into that by playing the martyr to Newsweek, of all places.

I realize there is bad blood between the two; and Romney, in the
position of power (as candidate) should have extended the olive
branch. This goes to show how petty and arrogant Mitt and his
campaign staff can be; again, not too far from how Obama and
his band of merry thugs behave.

I say again, by this time in the ’80 cycle, Reagan had reached out to everyone, including the vanquished Elder Bush, to unify the Party. Mitt doesn’t. He expect everyone to come to him. That’s not leadership, it’s entitlement.

His people are better at beating up on conservatives than they are on the Left.

Ed, Lot’s of people are not impressed with the Romney campaign’s political instincts.

Optics – who is going to be speaking at the convention? All men? Even if a woman speaks is it going to be a RINO like Haley?

This morning on Fox Business News: Varney and Company, I listened to Romney’s campaign being compared to Bob Dole’s effort when he ran for president. People are underwhelmed.

Dr Evil on July 16, 2012 at 10:36 AM

If it’s true, at best he’s “confirming” that he’s the CINO a fair swath of conservatives already believe him to be — irrespective of ‘Nista status — and at worst, he’s demonstrating that he’s petty and has the political acumen of Bill Maher. It doesn’t matter if the Romney’s have a dartboard with Palin’s face on it (or the other way around) — not inviting her is a dumb thing to do.

I would guess someone will make this untrue pretty quickly, regardless of the amount of truthiness it might have at the moment. Which might not be much.

She’s not been ready to play ball for months, and it is the bitter Palin fans who seem to be the ones averse to unifying the party around anyone other than her. And she taps right into that by playing the martyr to Newsweek, of all places.

changer1701 on July 16, 2012 at 10:44 AM

Trust me when I tell you this: you’re mistaken. Just trust me. Palin has been ready to play ball for some time.

he was apparently enough people’s first choice, he won the primary. the primary palin wouldnt even compete in. she needs to stop this divisive crap she has been pulling and join the team or else start her own.

In the future educate yourself on how a Political campaign
is run. This woman doesn’t owe Mitt Romney a damn thing.
And neither do we as citizens. The responsibilty is up
to him to inspire us to want to vote for him, support him,
man phones for him, run campaign offices for him, and in
Palin’s position, campaign for him.

ToddPA on July 16, 2012 at 10:36 AM

Ejecting the most dangerous president ever elected is all the inspiration I need.

You didn’t answer the question. Has she endorsed Romney by name? If not,why not? Gingrich has. Santorum and Bachmann have. Perry and Pawlenty have. Only Ron Paul hasn’t and he still sees himself as an active candidate. Other than Sarah Palin has any noteworthy Republican failed to endorse Romney by name? Has any Republican scheduled a gathering a half mile from the GOP Convention? Palin has done great things for the nation. She all but stopped Obamacare with two words, but she chose not to run for POTUS. Now she should get on board or watch the show from the cheap seats.

ed is kind of an elitist, don’t say anything to make people mad guy. this site has lost the edge since my favorite filapina left. the fact is, romney wins in an extension of the 2010 landslide. most americans, including some democrats realize this guy is a marxist dictator in the making, he has done things to trash freedom, that should be impeachable. you really won’t like what you’ll get if they cheat to win, or create riots and postpone the election, you know, for the peoples safety. google black riot flash mob and see what comes up, it’s happening EVERYWHERE and the media and police refuse to talk about it. your rights are disappearing without a whimper and we just take it, disgusting. wait till he signs the U.N. anti-gun law, it’s coming, delete the 2nd amendment by fiat-edict, get ready.

he was apparently enough people’s first choice, he won the primary. the primary palin wouldnt even compete in. she needs to stop this divisive crap she has been pulling and join the team or else start her own.

I really do think that Gov. Palin is a good, patriotic American-no brainer-but if given choice between doing what’s good for her country-supporting mitt and not trying to make HERSELF the center of attention-or feeding her ego…her ego will ALWAYS win.

annoyinglittletwerp on July 16, 2012 at 10:25 AM

Yeah, you’re right alt, she really should quit trying to “make HERSELF the center of attention.”

Lots of red meat in this clip. Sarah Palin hits the Obama “regime” for everything from their lousy response to lousy job numbers to the arming of violent Mexican drug cartels that then murdered hundreds of people, to green energy crony capitalism. Toward the end of the clip she says that Obama is right, that 2012 is about two fundamentally different visions for America and we have the Democrat party of big government vs the Republican party of big freedom.

What amazes me about “our” side is that we get embarrassed by grassroots conservatives like Sarah Palin because she’s a straight talker and doesn’t appear to be an elite wonk. Yet the other side have total embarrassments like Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Joe Biden, continue to praise the stream of idiocy, lies, and gaffes that comes out of their mouths, and we devour our own for next to nothing trying to keep to some standard of legitimacy the left applies only to our side and not their own…

You didn’t answer the question. Has she endorsed Romney by name? If not,why not? Gingrich has. Santorum and Bachmann have. Perry and Pawlenty have. Only Ron Paul hasn’t and he still sees himself as an active candidate. Other than Sarah Palin has any noteworthy Republican failed to endorse Romney by name? Has any Republican scheduled a gathering a half mile from the GOP Convention? Palin has done great things for the nation. She all but stopped Obamacare with two words, but she chose not to run for POTUS. Now she should get on board or watch the show from the cheap seats.

xkaydet65 on July 16, 2012 at 10:50 AM

If you read the newsweek piece there’s clues why she have problems with romneys goons.

I realize in Romney World, past actions, no matter how nefarious, should have no consequences in the future. Memories must be short and double standards accepted. Not surprised you lemmings do his bidding.
Kevin Madden, at Romney’s behest, deliberately undermined Palin’s credibility on CNN/MSNBC in the days leading up to the 2008 election. All with the intention of benefitting Romney for 2012.
That doesn’t mean I won’t vote for Romney. As long as he picks a conservative running mate I will. I detest the current occupant. But Romney’s continued disdain for her makes pulling the lever very difficult. I’d rather vote for his wife. She may be every bit as liberal as Mittens, but at least she’s honest.

Reads more like an attempt to create a controversy as yet another distraction for republicans.

We really need to continue to dismiss LSM attempts to set narratives for us. I mean come on, this was from Newsweek, remember the 1 dollar rag? Why even give them pixels? I would rather be commenting on an article from the National Enquirer, they at least break a real news story occasionally.

Skwor on July 16, 2012 at 10:08 AM

Yep. That is all this is. Does anyone even think anymore that Newsweek has decided for once to act in good faith? Virtually anything coming from the media should be treated with suspicion and should be examined carefully to find out what narrative they are trying to get established this time. It’s going to be ever shifting — the next one no doubt will be entirely different, even as the goal is the same, so it will take a bit of analysis to figure out what it is.

Four years later, being passed over for Sarah Palin may work in Mr. Pawlenty’s favor. “In a lot of ways, he’s the anti-Palin,” said Steve Schmidt, a strategist to Mr. McCain who expressed regret for her selection.

“Here’s a guy who is prepared to be president on Day 1. In any normal year, he would have been the pick.”

So Palin has put a story out there to improve her standing — and diminish Romney’s — among conservative voters. Yet Romney is the candidate running against Obama — NOT Palin. Remember this the next time Palin gives a speech about all the damage Obama is doing to America, as she clearly wants her moment of martyrdom more than she wants Obama gone. I smell a bit of “I couldn’t get the presidency…so you’re not getting it either!” I remember those kinds of girls in high school. Not nice. I’m very disappointed in Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin made a great barn-burner of a speech at the RNC in 2008, but she made quite a few mistakes since then, including letting the MSM paint her as “stupid” and resigning the Governorship of Alaska. For some reason, most polls show that while she is popular among the TEA Party base, she is toxic to independent voters, and Romney will need some of them to win.

There are plenty of other possible convention speakers who could “rile up the base” without alienating independent voters, such as Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Jim DeMint, Michele Bachmann, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, or (why not) the latest Republican election winner, Scott Walker.

Sarah Palin should probably be invited to the convention, but she doesn’t need a speaking role. The 2012 convention is going to be about electing Mitt Romney and his running mate over Obama and Biden, and all the major speakers need to be on the same page.

he was apparently enough people’s first choice, he won the primary. the primary palin wouldnt even compete in. she needs to stop this divisive crap she has been pulling and join the team or else start her own.

chasdal on July 16, 2012 at 10:49 AM

Wow, every candidate he was up against self destructed. He won by attrition. The best of the worst. Last man standing….because everyone else tripped over themselves. Oh yeah, the people’s first choice. Good Lord, the s**t people are shoveling…

Well, would YOU want a bunch of extremist Bible-thumping whackos protesting Obamacare, taxes, and government spending at the Republican convention? Why, I get the vapors just thinking about it! /

Doomberg on July 16, 2012 at 10:50 AM

I know, right? Those pesky conservatives better not show up and ruin everything. We need to trick the general populace that we’re not going to do anything too conservative./

Just look at the instant war Palin’s name creates in this thread. The usual blah blah from bitter types that still can’t handle the reality that we told you long ago Palin wasn’t running for POTUS. We knew her scam all along.

That is why Romney should ignore her. She is just a failed VP candidate from 2008. Why should she have any convention role at all anyway?